New York City Gardeners Gather

Community gardeners from throughout the five boroughs came together this past Saturday to celebrate thirty years of GreenThumb, one of the country’s largest urban gardening programs. Representatives from each garden attended to conference, to collaborate on new ideas, connect with one another, and attend workshops. This was the 25th annual GrowTogether conference run by GreenThumb. It took place at Hostos Community College in the Bronx.

The day kicked off with a packed auditorium of New York City’s community gardeners and supporters to hear from Parks and Recreation Commissioner, Adrian Benape, and keynote speaker, Leda Meredith. Meridith was ballet dancer with the American Ballet Theatre II, Edward Villella, Manhattan Ballet and others. Her recent book Botany, Ballet, and Dinner form Scratch: A memoir with Recipes, in which she writes of the ways she connects to nature, living a busy city life.

There was also a performance by dancers form the American Ballroom Theater Youth Dance Company, the group that inspired the documentary “Mad Hot Ballroom.”

Councilwoman Darlene Mealy, 41st district, Brooklyn, surprised the audience to speak about her personal love of gardening an commitment to increasing New York City’s green space.

Watch below for Council Member Mealy on her passion for urban gardening:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Council Member Darlene Mealy from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

Nonprofits, government agencies, and independent companies, packed into a hall on the second floor of the conference. Organizations with any connection to food, gardening, the environment, energy etc. came together for the opportunity to network and advertise. Participants included the USDA, Just Food, Community Energy, and a yoga and permaculture ranch from upstate, to name a few.

Watch to hear from members of  the host organization, GreenThumb, The New York Restoration Project, and The Staten Island Compost Project on why this conference is important to them and their organizations:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Exhibits from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

I attended the “Wake Up: It’s Spring!” workshop and cooking demonstration. Yonnette Fleming of the Hattie Carthan Community Garden, spoke to attendees about the most nutritious foods that they can grow in their gardens. She worked with participants to create fresh salad with some homegrown greens, fruit, flowers, and sprouts.

After the meal was prepared and Flemming began to pass the salad around,
I couldn’t help but notice how out of place the Styrofoam bowls and
disposable forks felt

Flemming advocates seasonal eating. In other words eating specific foods depending on which season it is. This relates to local eating in that you should eat foods that are native to an area and eat them when they are growing naturally in an environmnet. As supposed to shipping watermelons from the south. For spring she focused on edible flowers and the nutrients that they contain.

Watch below to hear from Flemming and see the spring meal that participants helped make and eat:

NYC Gardeners Gather: Spring Food Workshop and Demo from Geneva Sands-Sadowitz on Vimeo.

The conference was an chance for gardeners in and around New york City to gather just as spring is begining.

Tags: community gardens, Department of Parks and Recreation, edible flowers, Green Thumb, Grow Together, urban gardening

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Bronx, CSAs, Manhattan, Uncategorized, Urban Farming. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.